Authorship

The College’s guidelines on authorship are as follows.

a) All co-authors should have made a significant intellectual or practical contribution.

b) Where there are two or more co-authors involved in a study, it is suggested that one author takes responsibility for the scientific accuracy of the entire publication. This senior author should verify that each co-author has reviewed the manuscript and is able to confirm that their area of expertise is accurate to the best of their knowledge.

c) Heads of Department are responsible for ensuring that members of the Department are not engaged in the publication of research which is not authentic, or does not add substantially to existing literature. This responsibility will in practice be delegated to principal investigators.

General Guidance for authors

Ethical behaviour and good practice is expected at all levels of the research process. Plagiarism is usually a very contentious issue, and a number of organisations provide guidance to authors and researchers. The library provides a range of information and resources for different groups of staff and students to avoid plagiarism in their work. Some specific guidance related to avoiding plagiarism when authoring journal articles is also available.